How can a Self Care Journal Improve your Well-Being?
The subject of self-care and its importance has been gaining traction in recent years. It is a movement stemming from (or in response to) the detrimental effects of the fast-paced, often unhealthy nature of modern life. The goal is to take a better and more mindful approach to care for ourselves holistically. Self-care as a whole has many techniques and tactics to accomplish this goal — and one of them is self-care journaling.
What is Self Care and Self-care Journaling
While the term conjures up images of a massage or treating yourself to a healthy meal, self-care is much more. Self-care is taking a holistic approach to maintaining a healthy relationship with yourself and your health and wellness.
And what better way to maintain a healthy relationship with yourself than writing….to yourself! Self-care journaling falls under the umbrella of a holistic approach, and focuses on your mental health through self-examination and reflection. Much like other guided journaling activities, making regular and detailed entries is what makes them effective. Over time, you can begin to reflect upon trends in your ways of thinking or problems you face.
6 Ways that Self-Help Journals can improve your life
Keep track and reflect on what’s happening in your life
Keeping track of things can be daunting for some. Having a physical copy of a self-help planner supports in managing the many things that we want to keep updated. Jotting all your self-care goals in is a good way to stay on top of things. This way, you don’t need to rack your brain for every little detail. You just need to consult your self-care planner with ease. The Recal Journal is a journal for self reflection that uses a monthly-weekly-daily structure to keep track of the many moving parts of your life.
Manage stress and anxiety in a healthy way
Writing about your stressful experiences combats the negative effects of stress. A study done in 2018 shows that writing about our stressful and traumatic experiences can help in improving our overall mental well-being. In the study, participants were tasked to write about their stressful experiences regularly. The researchers found a significant improvement in the participants compared to the control group.
It enables you to decompress after a long day
Processing experiences and feelings are important activities for our mental health. Taking the time to think about and mull over the day’s events—especially after hectic ones—is a must. A journal of self-reflection helps you deal with the emotions and feelings you felt instead of bottling them inside, often leading to unhealthy stress-coping. Making a habit of writing in your journal regularly conditions your mind to confront uncomfortable thoughts in a healthy way.
It helps you keep a focused mind
While we’ve heard fantastic stories of multitaskers in our lives, multitasking is not for the majority of us. In a study done, it was revealed that when juggling two complex tasks, we perform poorer in both tasks than we do when we focus on one at a time. Having too many on your mind is in actuality counterproductive! Having a journal — like the Recal Journal and its day planner, priority tracking, and to-do list — allows you to dump some of these thoughts and let you focus on one task at a time.
It enables you to understand yourself
Consistent journaling is an effective way to understand yourself. Frequent examination of your thoughts, feelings, and emotions gives you valuable insight into yourself. It lets you actively examine how you think and feel and allows you to see patterns or trends. This, in turn, helps you identify which behavior to work on and which ones to strengthen. Consider guided journaling if you find it difficult to self-start.
It brings things into perspective
A journal for self reflection gives you a bird’s eye view of your life. You get an overall feel of your character traits like motivations, likes and dislikes, and inspirations. You also get to see areas where you need to work on. Journals are also great ways to track your growth and progress. Most of the time, the changes you do are small. Their effects are seldom felt which can be disheartening to most. A journal gives you a complete and detailed record of these changes reminding you to keep going until you reach your goals.
Start Your Self-care Practice with the Recal Journal
If you’re interested in trying out a self-care journaling practice, the Recal Journal might be a great place to begin. Learn more here at recaltravel.com/journal.